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Complaints from residents about feral cats in the east end of Cornwall has prompted city hall to begin work on bringing back a bylaw to deal with the problem.

Cornwall hasn’t had a feral cat bylaw since the last one was allowed to expire in 2009. The original was passed by council in 2008 to authorize the Ontario SPCA to run a program where they trapped, spay or neutered, and then released feral cats in order to reduce the population.

The bylaw was put in place for one year and was never renewed. But according to the SPCA’s head inspector, Bonnie Bishop, they managed to fix more than 300 feral cats in the city during that time.

“It was very effective. Many of those areas now no longer have wild cats in them because of the program. The breeding was stopped so the colony couldn’t replenish itself,” said Bishop. “We made a big dent, and we worked with local veterinarians to get it done.”

At their meeting last week, city council asked the municipal staff for a report on how best to bring back the feral cat bylaw.

The motion was put forward by councillors Maurice Dupelle and Andre Rivette because of complaints they have been receiving from constituents.

The city’s bylaw supervisor, Chris Rogers, said his department has been receiving a stream of complaints about feral cats from residents, mostly from the east end of the city.

“Residents have been complaining about a glut or a blight of feral cats. Of course, well-intentioned people are feeding them, which potentially aggravates the situation,” said Rogers. “That isn’t to say that the problem is exclusive to that neighbourhood. We have received complaints from all over the city.”

Bishop says she isn’t surprised that Cornwall’s population of feral cats has begun to rebound almost eight years after the last spay and neuter program was run.

Ideally, such initiatives would be maintained over the long-term, but paying to trap and fix hundreds of cats is expensive, and it just wasn’t possible to do it for longer.

When asked how a new feral cat bylaw should work, Bishop said she could not comment because the SPCA has yet to hear from the City of Cornwall on the subject. But they are ready to work with the municipality on the issue.

“We will be anxious to have some contact with them about it,” she said.

Rogers said there is a possibility that the old 2008 bylaw could be reinstated exactly how it was written years ago, or a new bylaw could be created.

There will be discussions with the SPCA on how to proceed before a recommendation is brought back to city council.

“It’s certainly early days, and we need to approach the SPCA because anything we do will have to involve them,” he said.